Constructing method of organization activity database, analysis sheet used therein, and organization activity management system

ABSTRACT

By collecting or creating information written in a specific descriptive system, making a real model defining the concept handled in the organization activity, analyzing the domain for defining the words by stratifying each concept on the model of each basic concept of at least person, organization, article, document, meeting and event for composing the organization activity, analyzing the sentence pattern for defining the context by stratifying on the model of the concept of action, and by fitting and integrating the word defined by domain analysis and sentence pattern analysis into the context, a logical model corresponding to the real model is created. Thereby an organization activity database, in which information about various events necessary for organization activity and information of achievements resulting organization activity are integrated, is constructed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a constructing method of organizationactivity database integrating information about various events necessaryfor organization analyzing or achievements and other informationgenerating therefrom, and analysis sheet and organization activitymanagement system used in the same.

More particularly, the invention relates to a constructing method oforganization activity database for registering various pieces ofinformation generated in the process of various organization activitiesbased on the result of taking in and analyzing events in considerationof process (work flow) management, organization internal rules,statutory regulations and the like in various organization activities,an analysis sheet used therein, and an organization activity managementsystem capable of understanding the working condition from the physicalaspect, searching next process, and searching related organization,document or personal information, by integrating thus constructedobject-oriented database (OODB) and conventional relational database(RDB).

2. Description of the Related Art

In many organizations, especially enterprises, hitherto, computersystems have been introduced for the purpose of promoting the efficiencyand automation of data processing in order to enhance the productivityof objects. Such introduction of computer system contributed greatly toefficiency and automation of general routine tasks, such as processingof slips, but was not sufficiently effective in many non-routine tasks,for example, research and development, and further in the enhancement ofproductivity of clerical processing in the enterprise.

Recently, in the organization activity, especially in the enterpriseactivity aiming at profit making, the concept called "work flow" isattracting attention. The work flow is generally defined as the "processpromoted by integrating individual tasks in order to achievetransactions (individual processes defined clearly) within anorganization".

Transactions consist of routine tasks that occur every day and can beprocessed by standard procedure, and non-routine tasks that do not occurevery day and are processed individually. The former includes slipprocessing and other tasks occurring in daily enterprise activities, andis called production work flow. The latter includes research anddevelopment and the like, and is called ad hoc work flow.

The conventional computer software for management of production workflow includes various types of software for automating frequent,repetitive and important jobs for the enterprise, such as insurancebilling and payment settlement. However, nothing notable is available atthe present as the computer software for management of ad hoc work flow.This is because, considering the computer software for ad hoc work flow,necessary process for given job is not determined, and processing isoften done by judgment of individual persons.

On the other hand, when classifying the work flow aside from theclassification into production work flow and ad hoc work flow aclassification into document-oriented work flow and group-oriented workflow may be considered. In document-oriented jobs, required processesare mainly carried out by papers or a work package called foldercontaining them. In other words, in the document-oriented work flow, onedocument or folder is put into a queue composed of plural workers, andis sequentially processed to promote the task. By contrast, in thegroup-oriented work flow, jobs are instructed to individual workers, andjobs executed by individual workers are integrated, and by repeatingsuch work, one task is executed by plural workers.

In this way, the work flow is roughly classified into four categories,that is, the document-oriented production work flow, document-orientedad hoc work flow group-oriented production work flow, and group-orientedad hoc work flow.

Incidentally, for the management of document-oriented work flow, an artcalled SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) is known. It wasestablished as ISO8879 in 1986, and it is a computer language forhandling documents electronically, that is, in a format handled bycomputer. This system has been already employed in the Patent Office ofJapan.

Moreover, as a subset of SGML, HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is alsoknown for handling documents including multimedia data such as voice andmoving image. The hypertext is the software enabling to handle data suchas characters, image and voice as the object, and access by linking themvariously, and its descriptive language is the HTML. A file in the HTMLformat can be linked with video and audio data, and not only the puretext data, but also drawings, receipts and others can be directly takenin as image data in bit map format or the like, so that the so-calledmultimedia system can be constructed.

The concept of SGML may be summarized as follows.

*Elements of a document are classified into structure and content, andappearance elements.

*The document structure and information content are expressed by SGML,and shown by standard characters.

*The document structure is defined by language, without sacrificing theflexibility of document.

Having such concept, the SGML provides the following features.

*The writer of the document can concentrate efforts on writing thedocument accurately and simply. That is, the writer need not considerthe layout of document that was required conventionally in the wordprocessor or DTP (desktop publishing) system.

*The document can be written by using any preferred word processor oreditor (text editor), and it is possible to print or display withoutchanging the document content. As a result, the document making andoutput are not limited by specific appliance or system.

*In particular, in the case of in-house documents, official documents,or commercial documents such as manuals, it is easy to standardize thestyle of the documents.

*The documented information can be easily made into database.

*By using HTML, the document can be made easily by using not only textdata, but also still picture, moving picture and sound.

In the enterprise activities, on the other hand the standard of qualitymanagement established as ISO9000 in 1987 is known. In this ISO9000,"the procedure for making up the product quality" is more important than"the product quality itself", and it requires "documentation of qualitysystem (quality making procedure) conforming to the quality policy ofthe top management, and assortment of documents proving that the jobsare done exactly according to the procedure specified in thesedocuments".

To realize such ISO9000, it is necessary to make and store necessarydocuments, and it is very effective, needless to say, to make thesedocuments in a standardized descriptive system, for example, SGML, fromthe viewpoint of database compilation.

To record various informations in an organization (enterprise) in anelectronic format, that is, to form into electronic data such as textdata and document descriptive data for the document to be processed by aword processor, graphic data to be processed by CAD/CAM system, andraster data for photographs and graphics, it means evidently that afurther efficiency is achieved because various documents (documents,drawings, business transaction slips, etc.) in all departments of theenterprise such as design department, sales department, manufacturingdepartment and distribution department can be exchanged easily aselectronic information through communication lines. More specifically,the drawings made by the CAD in the design department can be instantlytransmitted to the manufacturing department or distribution department,and hence it is possible to respond very quickly relation to themanufacturing equipment, or from the viewpoint of problems inprocurement of parts and feedback of market research.

Considering from such technical flow, evidently, further efficiency isdemanded in contact with other organizations, aside from the efficiencyof organization activity within one organization. That is, by exchangingvarious documents (documents, drawings, business transaction slips,etc.) with other organizations (other companies) as electronicinformation through communication lines, it is obvious that a furtherefficiency is achieved. More specifically, for example, drawing datamade by the CAD of one company is sent to a component manufacturingcompany through communication lines, and the data can be directly putinto an NC machine, so that manufacture of the component can be startedimmediately.

Such technique is realized, however, only by standardization ofelectronic information, not only within one organization, but also on aglobal scale at the present. For example, when the electronicinformation is standardized within one company and electronicinformation can be exchanged between the design department andmanufacturing department, however, when subcontracting the components,the drawings must be printed as hard copy and submitted to thesubcontractor. In this case, the subcontractor is not limited within thenation, and therefore a global standardization of electronic informationis needed.

Such idea has been already proposed as the concept such as "CALS", andit is partly put in practical use. Various elements are involved inCALS, and its definition is not fixed yet, but the following threepoints are regarded as important aspects.

(1) To construct an environment capable of exchanging technicalinformation such as design drawings, written information such asreports, and transaction information generating accompanying with orderissuing and receiving, between departments in an organization, orbetween plural organizations, directly in the form of electronicinformation, and without restrictions of the hardware.

(2) To allow all concerned parties (organizations) to function as oneorganization, by sharing information and utilizing whenever necessary byall concerned parties (organizations), in all aspects from developmentand design of products, to procurement of materials, and maintenance andmanagement after shipping.

(3) To realize a so-called multimedia system capable of exchanging notonly simple numerical data as in the conventional computer system butalso image and sound.

As elements necessary for realizing such CALS, the following standardsfor input and exchange of information is needed. More specifically,aside from the SGML, the following standards has been alreadyestablished: EDI (Electronic Data Interchange: standard of exchange ofelectronic data, partly specified already in ISO7372 as EDIFACT), STEP(Standard for The Exchange of Product model data: standard of productdesign drawing data, ISO10303), CGM (Computer Graphics Metafile:standard of storage and exchange of graphic data such as drawings andillustrations), IGES (Initial Graphics Exchange Specifications: standardof format data of CAD/CAM system), and CCITT Group 4 (InternationalTelegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee Group 4: standard ofcompression technique for exchange of graphic data).

Further considerations must be also given to integration and security ofdatabase, and moreover, for example, the software for converting thedocument made by using various formats of hardware and software intoSGML format automatically is also necessary.

When the CALS, which may be dared to be said to be a global paperlessmovement, is realized, the electronic information of the working processon the whole related to the technology including design andmanufacturing can be exchanged beyond the barriers of enterprise, notlimited to the departments within the own company, and the marketingresearch, planning, design, purchase of parts, manufacture, and manualwriting hitherto conducted in the time series can be done simultaneouslyand parallel, that is, the so-called CE (Concurrent Engineering) can berealized. On the other hand, the plural departments within theenterprise already diversified and having complicated functions can beintegrated, which is known as EI (Enterprise Integration), or a virtualenterprise can be organized by plural companies by subcontractingnon-specialty jobs to other companies, which is known as VC (VirtualCorporation).

When plural processes in an enterprise or plural enterprises are linkedby network, sales and manufacturing, design and manufacturing, andmarketing and manufacturing can be executed through close relations,respectively. An integrated database beyond the barriers of departmentsor enterprises can be built up through network. While sharing variousdata, as each department or each enterprise promotes the operation, thewaste can be eliminated, the decision is made promptly, and the job issophisticated (that is, a higher value is added). In particular, theproductivity of the so-called white-collar workers, who conventionallymade and exchanged a tremendous amount of documents to fulfill the mainduties of designing and planning, market cultivation, opinion adjustmentamong departments, and negotiations with other companies, will benotably enhanced, and the radical change of jobs relating to pluraldepartments and plural enterprises is brought about, which may be calledbusiness process reengineering.

When however, the document management is standardized into database byemploying CALS, the ad hoc work flow cannot be solved only byintroducing the SGML with the conventional concept of document-orientedwork flow only. From such point of view, recently, development is beingpromoted for the computer software called groupware for managing thegroup-oriented work flow. The groupware is a kind of computer softwaredesigned to promote the job executed by plural workers efficiently.

The hitherto known groupware includes functions of schedule managementof workers engaged in a same job, automatic setting of meeting hours,and automatic transmission of job instructions by electronic mail fromthe group leader to the individual group members. In other words, itaims at production work flow management by using the conventionalelectronic mail function, between plural terminals connected by LAN orthe like.

As clear from the description herein, of the four types of work flow,various products of computer software are already available for themanagement of two types of document-oriented work flow, and further byusing not only SGML but also CALS, it is possible to handle alldocuments systematically within an enterprise in future. Concerning themanagement of group-oriented production work flow, when not sufficientin function, various of computer software called groupware are realized,and it is expected that the functions may be further fulfilled in thefuture. However, as for the management of group-oriented ad hoc workflow, little has been attempted so far.

For example, in the research and development tasks in the enterprise, itis necessary to take in the events in consideration of the corporate jobmanagement rules, shop standard and statutory regulations (for example,GCP:Good Clinical Practice for pharmaceuticals), register various datagenerating in the process into the object-oriented database, understandthe situations from the physical aspect, search the next process, orsearch the information of related organization, document and person, inthe course of execution of the tasks.

In such a case, the management of group-oriented ad hoc work flow isessential, and it requires the technique for formatting the eventsrelating to the activities of persons into database. In the conventionaldatabase functions such as RDB (relational database) and NDB (networkdatabase), however, since the manner of capturing the informationdiffers on each scene of the job, linking of items of the database iscomplicated, and it is difficult to extract necessary information, andhence it was substantially impossible to form into a working system.

In this background, by the advent of the object-oriented database(OODB), lately, it has been made easy to formulate events relating topersonal activities into database, and pick up relating information.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is devised in the light of such circumstances, and it isan object thereof to present, for example, in research and developmentof pharmaceuticals, a constructing method of organization activitydatabase for taking in the events in consideration of the workmanagement rules, shop standard and statutory regulation (GCP) etc., foranalyzing the organization activity on the various pieces of informationgenerating in the process, and for registering the information in theOODB, understanding the work situation from the physical aspect,searching the next process, and searching the information of relatedorganization, document and person, an analysis sheet used therein, andan organization activity management system using the constructeddatabase. Thereby, it is a further object to manage integratedly thefour types of work flow necessary or ordinary organization activities,that is, the document-oriented production work flow, document-orientedad hoc work flow, group-oriented production work flow. andgroup-oriented ad hoc work flow.

The constructing method of organization activity database, whichmanaging the organization activity with use of a database managementsystem operating on the hardware, comprises steps of: for a real modelin which plural concepts including concept of action handled in theorganization activity are defined, defining each concept by stratifyingall concepts handled in the organization activity in which plural basicconcepts composing the organization activity are made to be higheststratum, and defining each sentence pattern by arranging and integratingmeaning of each verb deciding a concept of action accompanying withorganization activity and each example which can be taken by said verbin that meanings, and by stratifying them; creating a logical modelcorresponding to said real model by fitting said defined concept to saiddefined sentence pattern; and making a mounted model by converting thecreated logical model into a descriptive system suited to said databasemanagement system.

The basic concepts includes at least person, organization, article,document, meeting and event.

The analysis sheet used for the organization activity database has itemcolumns for describing the relation with lower concept with respect tosaid each basic concept, and item columns for describing the relationfitting each basic concept to said sentence pattern.

The analysis sheet is prepared corresponding to each basic concept of atleast person, organization, article, document, meeting and event.

The organization activity management system, which managing theorganization activity with use of a database management system operatingon the hardware, comprises: server environment having: organizationactivity database which is constructed by, for a real model in whichplural concepts including concept of action handled in the organizationactivity are defined, defining each concept by stratifying all conceptshandled in the organization activity in which plural basic conceptscomposing the organization activity are made to be highest stratum, anddefining each sentence pattern by arranging and integrating meaning ofeach verb deciding a concept of action accompanying with organizationactivity and each example which can be taken by said verb in thatmeanings, and by stratifying them; creating a logical modelcorresponding to said real model by fitting said defined concept to saiddefined sentence pattern; and making a mounted model by converting thecreated logical model into a descriptive system suited to said databasemanagement system; a document database accumulating information relatingto documents, a process database accumulating information of processrelating to organization activity, and client environments having pluralretrieval functions capable of accessing the database management systemusing each one of plural basic concepts, documents and processes asretrieval key of higher stratum, wherein said database management systemmanages said organization activity database, document database andprocess database by connecting each other, and said client environmentsare capable of accessing the information accumulated in any database inan arbitrary order by outputting the retrieval key from each retrievalfunction and giving to said database management system.

The basic concepts in the organization activity management systemincludes at least person, organization, article, document, meeting andevent.

The above and further objects and features of the invention will morefully be apparent from the following detailed description withaccompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a basic concept of object-orienteddatabase;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram explaining a basic concept of datamodeling technique employed for the OODB in the system of the invention;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of concept for expressing a basic modelwith points and lines;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of DFD-like node;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the relation of object andmessage;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of structural model of the invention;

FIG. 7 is a graph showing a hierarchical structure of concept;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing the dimensions of space and time;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing a database structure;

FIG, 10 is a graph showing method of use of a verb (to put);

FIG. 11A is a graph showing a connotation of person;

FIG. 11B is a graph showing a connotation of person;

FIG. 12 is a graph showing an entering procedure of person sheet;

FIG. 13 is a graph showing a connotation of organization;

FIG. 14 is a graph showing an entering procedure of organization sheet;

FIG. 15 is a graph showing a connotation of article;

FIG. 16 is a graph showing an entering procedure of article sheet;

FIG. 17 is a graph showing a connotation of action;

FIG. 18A is a schematic diagram showing an example of action sheet;

FIG. 18B is a schematic diagram showing an example of action sheet;

FIG. 19 is a graph showing a connotation of meeting;

FIG. 20 is a graph showing an entering procedure of meeting sheet;

FIG. 21 is a graph showing a connotation of document;

FIG. 22 is a graph showing an entering procedure of document sheet;

FIG. 23 is a schematic diagram showing an example of document sheet;

FIG. 24 is a graph showing a connotation of event;

FIG. 25 is a graph showing an entering procedure of event sheet;

FIG. 26A is a graph showing an entering procedure of work name sheet;

FIG. 26B is a graph showing an entering procedure of work name sheet;

FIG. 27 is a schematic diagram of modeling procedure of constructingmethod of organization activity database;

FIG. 28 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 29 is a flowchart showing procedure of registration process ofaction sheet;

FIG. 30 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 31 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 32 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 33 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 34 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 35 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 36 is a flowchart showing procedure of registration process ofdomain sheet;

FIG. 37 is a flowchart showing procedure of updating process of sheetinformation;

FIG. 38 is a flowchart showing procedure of history reference process ofsheet information;

FIG. 39 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 40 is a schematic diagram showing a logical model;

FIG. 41 is a schematic diagram showing a model of object-orienteddatabase;

FIG. 42 is a schematic functional block diagram showing a generalconcept of organization activity management system of the invention;

FIG. 43 is a block diagram showing hardware configuration oforganization activity management system of the invention;

FIG. 44 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 45 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 46 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 47 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 48 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 49 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 50 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 51 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 52 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 53 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 54 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 55 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 56 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 57 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 58 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 59 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 60 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 61 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention;

FIG. 62 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention; and

FIG. 63 is a schematic diagram showing an example of display screen bythe system of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to the drawings, preferred embodiments of the inventionare described in detail below.

First is explained a data modeling method necessary for constructing anobject-oriented database (OODB), that is, a constructing method ofdatabase of the invention. The invention employs the object-orienteddatabase management system (OODBMS). Referring to the schematic diagramof FIG. 1, the basic concept of OODB is described below.

In the OODB, four concepts are important, that is, object, abstract datatype, encapsulation and inheritance. The object is, whether visible ornot, the subject of recognition by person. For example, as shown in FIG.1, an action conducted by person in a certain process is handled also asan object.

The abstract data type refers to the data type combining the followingthree concepts. The first is the concept of a set of data elements andintegration of its manipulation (data formatting). The second is theconcept of structuring for composing a new data type from the existingdata type. The third is the concept of separation (abstracting) of thespecification and its realizing method as seen from the user.

In the example shown in FIG. 1, the process is the abstract data type.The process is defined as the data type having, as data items, theprocess name, plural jobs (a job group) to be executed in the process,the lower process which is the process of the own data type. Byemploying such abstract data type, module forming is thorough, andrecycling and maintainability of data are enhanced.

Encapsulation is a concept known as information concealment forcompletely concealing the information about how the object is realizedor the like, capable of accessing the object only by sending the messageand capable of using the function.

In the example shown in FIG. 1, the name, date of birth, age and othersare defined for a person. In the conventional relational database (RDB),they were determined as attributes that can be expressed by charactersand numerical values. In the OODB, however, the attribute, for example,the age is defined as the attribute that can be calculated whenever fromthe date of birth and the present date. In other words, the procedurecan be handled integrally.

Finally, inheritance is a genetic term, meaning that the constitutionand character of the parent (ancestor) are transmitted to the offspring(descendent). The example shown in FIG. 1 shows that the report is anoffspring of the document, and the document name and store place aredefined in the document as the parent. In the report as the offspring,on the other hand, these attributes defined in the document as theparent are inherited as the own items and can be used without definingagain.

It is the OODB that is the system having such features and the basicconcept of the conventional database management system such as exclusivecontrol and simultaneous execution control.

Referring next to the schematic diagram in FIG. 2, the basic concept ofdata modeling technique employed for the OODB in the system of theinvention is described.

The most basic concepts in an organization for producing something byplural people such as an enterprise are persons, articles, money andinformation. Herein, hence, the real world is regarded as a model ofinteractions of persons and organization, and articles (and place). In amode very close to the state in which the persons recognize such model,mapping (logical modeling) is applied to the logical world, that is, theworld that can be handled by the computer. The state after mapping ofthe real world into logical world is called information, and theinformation is modeled as interactions of persons and organization.

As an important concept for realizing a basic model, as shown in theschematic diagram of FIG. 3, the invention employs an idea of expressingall events by points and lines. Herein the point is defined as the wordfor expressing the concept, and the line is defined to express theconnotation possessed by the concept.

The point is defined as the word for expressing the concept, and morespecifically, among the concepts handled in daily job, the seven typescomprising the person, organization, article, document, meeting, eventaction are recognized as basic concepts. All other compound concepts maybe regarded as materialized concepts of these basic concepts. Therefore,all concepts can be organized as a graph structure having these sevenbasic concepts at the peaks.

The line is defined to express the connotation possessed by the concept,and specifically the "is-a" relation, "part-whole" relation, membershiprelation, and physical relation may be employed as basic relations.Herein, the "is-a" relation is the relation between abstract concept andconcrete concept described above, for example, "A is B". The"part-whole" relation refers to such a relation as "material andproduct". The membership relation is an intrinsic feature possessed by acertain concept. The physical relation is a coupling relation of conceptand concept, that is, so-called graph relation.

On the basis of such idea, for example, all concepts handled in dailyworks in an enterprise or the like can be modeled by points and lines.

Incidentally, the daily job in an enterprise is development of "how toachieve (means) what request (purpose)". In other words, it may beregarded as a system constructed by repeatedly executing the developmentof purpose and means. The system is basically composed of a hierarchicalstructure of basic elements of "doing some process on one input andobtaining some output". In the formation of such hierarchical structure,abstract and concrete techniques are applied recursively. Therefore, asthe modeling method of basic elements of hierarchical structure, the DFD(Data Flow Diagram)-like concept is introduced. Such ideal is calledDFD-like node herein, and it can be graphically expressed as shown inthe schematic diagram in FIG. 4.

The structural model is explained. Logical modeling of the real taskmodel is to convert into a format that can be handled by the computer.The man manipulates the information through the software, and in thissense the software is also one of the concepts handled in the task. Itsstructure should be preferably as close to the personal thinking aspossible. Therefore, it is disclosed that the software is composed ofwhat structural factors, and the realizing method of the basic ideal ofmodeling described so far is explained below. The software is basicallycomposed of three structural factors, that is, object and message,stratum, and dimension.

The object and message are described first while referring to theschematic diagram of FIG. 5, but the object itself has been explainedalready. In the invention, the object is regarded as the subject. Theobject has the connotation possessed by the object, and the intrinsicbehavior that the object should possess. Therefore, the object is activeand subjective. The dialog between the object and the person oroperator, or other object is achieved only through message. By thismessage, the mutual relation between person and the object asinformation can be manipulated.

Next, the stratum is explained, but "connotation" and "denotation" mustbe explained at first. The connotation and denotation are the wordsrelating to the "concept". That is, the concept possesses theconnotation and denotation. The definitions of the Kojien Dictionary arecited herein.

The concept is "a form of thought for understanding the essence of athing. Essential features of a thing and their relation is the contentof the concept (connotation). The concept has a generality because it isapplied to things (denotation) in a specific range having a sameessence. For example, the connotation of the concept of person is afeature of person as a person, while the denotation relates to allpersons. However, there is also a concept (individual concept,independent concept) capturing an individual (for example, Socrates).The concept is expressed in language, and exists as its meaning.Establishment of a concept is explained in various opinionsphilosophically, and it is an ordinary opinion to extract content commonto many things experienced (abstract), and discard incidental naturebelonging to individual things only (abstraction), it is opposite to theposition of recognizing the concept (congenital concept) independentfrom the experience".

The connotation is "a total of features (nature) commonly possessed bythings belonging to a range (denotation) to which the concept isapplied. In form logic, the connotation and denotation increase inopposite directions. For example, the concept of an academician includesall types of academicians in the fields such as philosophy, literature,science and economics, but when the feature of "philosophical study" isadded to the concept of academician, the connotation increases and thedenotation decreases to the contrary".

The denotation is "a range of things to which a certain concept isapplied. For example, the denotation of the concept metal includes gold,silver, steel, iron, etc".

It is a word that expresses the concept, and the word often differs inthe meaning depending on the context in which it appears. In this case,the concept expressed by the word has plural connotations. When theconnotations are different, the denotations are also different. In thetask modeling, it is necessary to model the connotation and denotationof such word and concept. In the invention, therefore, the structuralmodel as shown in the schematic diagram of FIG. 6 is considered.

Herein, general concepts such as category, set concept and individualconcept are recognized as congenital concepts, and they are positionedas higher concepts of the structural model in the invention, and theconcepts are considered to be inherited.

The structure of concept is hierarchical, and its types and mutualrelation may be listed up as shown in the graph in FIG. 7 according tothe "Software Production Engineering Handbook". The meaning of eachconcept shown in FIG. 7 is defined in the Kojien Dictionary as follows.

Category: "A most general basic concept (for example, entity, causalrelation, quantity, quality, etc.). It is regarded as a fundamentalbeing of existence (Aristotle), or as a congenital concept of wisdom(Kant), among other thoughts. (Kant: quantity (single, multiple, all),quality (existence, negation, limitation), relation (entity andincidence, cause and dependence, mutual action), mode (possibility andimpossibility, realism and non-realism, necessity and incidence.))"

Set (mathematics): "A group of things, having a definite standard fordistinguishing whether an arbitrary thing belongs to it or not, andwhether two belonging things (essences or elements of a set) are equalor not".

Set concept: "A concept indicating a set of individuals as the whole.For example, class, audience and constellation. However, the class is aset concept for individual students belonging to it, but is anindividual concept when meaning each one of many classes".

Individual concept: "A general concept, by contrast to set concept,obtained by applying a same significance to the individuals includedtherein. For example, people and house".

General concept: "A concept commonly applied by many things withoutchanging the meaning. For example, book and man".

Cross concept: "A concept overlapping part of denotations. For example,scholar and educator".

Relative concept: "A concept particularly deep in relation with otherconcept, and its significance is further clarified by comparisontherewith. Example, day and night, and heaven and earth. Compareabsolute concept".

Disjunctive concept: "A concept belonging to a same category, with itsdenotations not crossing at all and completely separated. For example,red, black, white, or triangle and quadrangle".

Contradictory concept: "A concept not permitting anything intermediate,that is, one is directly negation of the other (e.g. presence andabsence, person and non-person). It should be distinguished from theopposite concept of mere quantitative relative difference (e.g. sage andfool). Of the contradictory concept, affirmative meaning of a certainnature is positive (affirmative) concept (e.g. presence, person)".

Opposite concept: "Of concepts subordinate to a certain group ofconcepts, the concept having the maximum difference as seen from theconnotation. For example, large and small, beautiful and ugly, and it ischaracteristic that a third party is permitted between them (neitherlarge nor small, etc.)".

Equivalent concept: "The concept coinciding perfectly in denotation, butnot coinciding in connotation before the viewpoints of discussion aredifferent. For example, sward and spirit of samurai, and book and mentalcrystal are equivalent concepts".

Identical concept: "The concept completely same in connotation anddenotation, although language patterns are different. For example,father and mother, and parents, equilateral triangle and conformabletriangle".

Independent concept: "A concept expressing a specific individual. Forexample, this desk, the author of Tales of Genji. (Single concept, fixedconcept)"

Incidentally, person is acting on two dimensions of space and time.Therefore, when modeling a work flow of a task mainly conducted bypersons, it is extremely important to form a concept model having theseven types of basic concepts at the peaks into a model of space, time,and time-space concepts which are sub-models of the concept model. Inthe invention, complicated complex concepts not having the time conceptare handled in the space model, and time concepts such as sequencerelation and status transition are handled in the time model. In thetime-space model, objects considering both space concept and timeconcept are handled.

As shown in the schematic diagram of FIG. 8, in the invention, of theseven types of basic concepts, concept models of six types, that is,person, organization, article, document, meeting and event are modeledas space models, and the concept model of action is modeled as timemodel. The interactions of space model and time model can be modeled byexpressing in the relation as input and output of action, and basicsentence patterns of so-called 5W1H (When, Where, Who, What, Why, How).

In the invention, meanwhile, the boundary of time-space model and timemodel is regarded to be ambiguous and not distinguished clearly. Thereason is that a set extracted from the network of action and named isregarded to be the concept to be handled in the time model. Usually,they are handled as the concepts of working unit and jobs. It may bealso understood as the manner of seeing to the time model necessary inthe situation in which the person is placed. For the purpose of suchflexible way of viewing, it is important to handle the boundary of timeand time-space ambiguously.

The database structure is explained below. When the relation ofconnotation and denotation explained above is mapped into the datamanagement mechanism of the presently available DBMS (databasemanagement system), a schematic diagram in FIG. 9 is obtained. Morespecifically, the connotation corresponds to the concept schema, thedenotation/connotation to the concept model, the denotation to theconcrete model, and the connotation (technical restriction) to theconcrete schema.

Herein, the concrete schema in the concrete database is the schema thatmust be provided in relation to the restrictions in the existingtechnique, but it is a schema not necessarily required in the meaning.It is the abstract database that is intended to manage an abstractevent, and it is the concrete schema that is intended to manage thespecific value of the concept. The concept schema is the model presentedin the invention in order to construct the concept model. The region foraccumulating the concept handled in the job as the data according to themodel is the concept model. This concept model is logically aconnotation of the concrete model accumulated as concrete model.However, due to the present technical restrictions, the schema formanaging the concrete model is needed in reality. That's the concreteschema. To generate a concrete schema from concept model, a specificrule is necessary, but the rule depends on the application softwareinstalled on the database. In the invention, therefore, conversion ofconcept model into concrete schema is defined as creation phase ofmounted model.

According to such manner of thinking, the constructing method ofdatabase of the invention, that is, the modeling procedure is describedbelow, and first to compose each model as a preparatory step, it isnecessary to employ the uniform expression for registering in the OODB.In the invention, such expression is called normal expression, and thenormal expression for composing the concept models of seven basicconcepts, that is, person, organization, article, document, meeting andevent, and action is defined, and by entering in the analysis sheetaccordingly, registration of each concept model into the OODB isfacilitated.

For this purpose, however, the concept must be managed. A specificexplanation will follow. First, management of meaning of sentence, thatis, management of context is described. The context is managed mainly onthe verb, that is, mainly on the action out of seven basic conceptsmentioned above.

It is the word that expresses the concept, and the word may differ inthe meaning depending on the context in which it appears. That is, eachword has plural connotations. When the connotations are different, thedenotations are also different. For example, let us consider a verb "toput".

Example 1: Mother put bottles of beer into the refrigerator.

Example 2: A friend put his daughter in a leading company.

Fourteen conjugations of the verb "to put" mentioned in the BasicJapanese Verb Usage Dictionary are reprinted in FIG. 10. These twoexamples are fitted to the sequence of elements linked with the verb "toput" semantically and syntactically as follows.

Example 1; "Mother--person" put "bottles of beer--objects" (fromxx--place) into "the refrigerator--place".

Example 2: "A friend--person" put "his daughter--person" in a "leadingcompany----organization".

Herein, example 1 conforms to usage 2 shown in FIG. 2, and means to movefrom outside into inside of a place. Example 2 conforms to usage 3, andmeans to belong to group, organization and classification. In this way,one verb is used in many meanings. Similarly, persons, articles andorganization may differ in connotation depending on the context(equivalent concept). Therefore, when defining a concept, it isimportant to manage the meaning of the word used in daily task as themeaning (context) together with its usage.

The management structure of concept may be considered as follows. Thatis, the category and general concepts such as set concept and individualconcept are positioned as higher concepts in the invention as thecongenital concepts, and the concepts are regarded to be inherited.Therefore,

*The word for expressing the concept is managed as point.

*The word may have plural contexts in which it appears.

*The context can have only one connotation of the word expessed on thecontext.

*The connotation may have a plurality of essential features of thingsand their relations.

The connotation is defined to have a plurality of essential features ofthings and their relations. Furthermore, the essential features andrelations are defined as follows. An essential feature is a concept fordefining the connotation expressed as a continuous quantity. Therefore,when an individual of the concept appears, the concept having charactersand numerical values as values is handled structurally. A relation is aconcept for defining the connotation expressed as a discrete quantity.Therefore, when an individual of the concept appears, the concept havingothers than characters and numerical values as values structurally ishandled.

The content of the concept is the connotation, and when the connotationis different, the denotation to which the concept is applied isdifferent. The concept model is uniquely a denotation of concept schema.Therefore, the management of denotation defined herein is the relationbetween the connotation, the concept model, and its denotation, theindividual.

For management of the individual as the concretness, a concrete schemadefining the virtual connotation is defined due to the present technicalrestriction. The concept defined in the concrete schema is called thevirtual concept (VC). This VC actually manages the individual which isthe denotation. Therefore, the connotation defined by the concept modelhas a mechanism for managing the VC, so that the connotation can manageindirectly denotation.

The line is a structure for handling the relation between concepts. Therelation existing between concepts has basically a graph structure.Therefore, the structure of relation is defined as follows.

The "is-a" relation is a structure for handling the higher-lowerrelation of a concept. The higher concept is the including concept whenthe concept is in an including-included relation with respect to thedenotation. The lower concept is the included concept. Forming of suchconcept is assembled by operation of abstracting and concreting.

Abstracting is an operation for extracting an essential feature or acommon feature by ignoring the detail of a thing, and specifying thefeature of the abstracted thing to be suited to the environments andsituation in which it is used and recognized. The relation having suchconcepts as connotation is defined to be the "is-a" relation. Themanagement mechanism necessary for the "is-a" relation is defined below.

It was stated above that plural connotations can be defined in the word.Therefore, when specifying higher and lower concepts of a certainconcept, the connotation is included as value. The higher concept canhave only one value, while the lower concept can have plural values.Therefore, seeing the higher from the lower, branching does not occur onthe way. Limited to a certain connotation, it can be purely sorted as agenre.

The inheritance is, as defined above, the concept receives theconnotation specified as the higher concept. Therefore, when referringto the connotation of a certain concept, the action of inheritance isrepeated until reaching the highest concept. In the invention, asmentioned above, person, organization, article, document, meeting andevent, and actions are defined at the concepts of the highest position.That is, these seven concepts function as the terminator of theinheritance mechanism.

The "part-whole" relation refers to the relation in which an object iscomposed of plural (two or more) objects as elements. Each element is apart of the whole. Each element may also have the "whole-part" relation.

On the basis of such manner of thinking, the constructing method oforganization activity database of the invention according to it arespecifically described below.

For example, a job handled as a task in general clerical processing isexecuted by (1) making a report for communicating with others, (2)making a report for announcing the result of the work, (3) making andissuing a delivery note when delivering merchandise, and (4) issuing areceipt when receiving merchandise, and thus the job is done through themedium of documents, or the record of the work is left as documents.

The procedure of the job or the manner of writing documents used in thejob (slips, reports, notices, etc.) is generally formulated in the formof job manual, duty handbook, work instruction, and the like. In thiscondition, therefore, the information necessary for job model ofobjective job may be obtained in a sufficient quantity by utilizingthese existing materials. In the invention, from such viewpoint,concerning the seven basic concepts of job model, that is, conceptmodels of person, organization, article, document, meeting and event,and actions, the following information is collected from the existingmaterials by using corresponding analysis sheets.

Analysis sheets are prepared for the basic seven concepts for composingthe job model, that is, person, organization, article, document, meetingand event, and actions (each is generally called the basic axis). Thetitle item of each analysis sheet shows, for example, such as an actionsheet in FIG. 18A and FIG. 18B described later and a document sheetshown in FIG. 23 described later, the relation that the connotationpossessed by the word describing the basic axis can take. Therefore,each cell of the analysis sheet is composed to describe the specificname and the name of its related destination.

The connotation of each basic axis is as shown in the graph. In eachgraph, the relation possessed by the connotation, the existing materialsfor extracting the model, and the information to be collected arearranged. In the graph, the description of "information to be collected"is expressed by adding an identifier after each item, such as ".person"(in the case of person) and ".act" (in the case of action), in order toindicate clearly to collect information of each basic element.

The connotation of a person is explained at first by referring to thegraphs in FIG. 11A and FIG. 11B. A person shows a concept that "a personhaving a certain role". The person's name as proper noun is handled asan instance of "a man having a certain role".

Concerning the occupation, for example: English teacher, doctor,carpenter, etc.

A member of an organization: Development section member, employee, etc.

Others: Patient, female, male, married person, etc.

The graphs in FIG. 11A and FIG. 11B show a list of classification of aperson model, existing materials that can be used for extracting personmodel, and information to be collected therefrom. The specific enteringprocedure of person sheet is as shown in the graph in FIG. 12. FIG. 12also shows the entering procedure of individual sheet. This is preparedin addition to the person sheet when it is necessary to distinguishindividual from person.

Concerning the organization, the connotation is shown in the graph inFIG. 13. Two approaches may be considered as the technique for capturingthe organization. One is the technique focusing on the system oforganization, and the other is a technique focusing on the peoplecomposing the organization their attitude, motivation, behavior, etc.The invention employs the former, and the latter is expressed by othermodel.

The graph in FIG. 13 shows a list of classification of organizationmodel, existing materials that can be used for extracting organizationmodel, and information to be collected therefrom. A specific enteringmethod of organization sheet is as shown in the graph in FIG. 14.

The connotation of the article is shown in the graph in FIG. 15. Thearticle is anything on real world that can be touched by hand. Herein,the constructings and documents are excluded from the articles.

The graph in FIG. 15 shows a list of classification of article model,existing materials that can be used for extracting article model, andinformation to be collected therefrom. A specific entering method ofarticle sheet is as shown in the graph in FIG. 16.

The connotation of action is shown in the graph in FIG. 17. Usablematerials for extracting the action model are classified into two types.

*Materials describing sequence relations and conditions of the action

*Materials describing the specific content of action (who, what, how,etc., corresponding to so-called 5W1H)

These materials correspond to job manual, job standard and the like.They are collectively called job manual hereinafter

As the information to be collected about the action model, the so-called5W1H as the basic formula of the Japanese grammar is employed as therule for describing the action model. A specific entering example ofaction sheet is shown in schematic diagrams in FIG. 18A and FIG. 18B.

The connotation of the meeting is shown in the graph in FIG. 19.Materials used for extracting the meeting model are classified in twotypes.

*Announcement and proceedings of meeting (subtracting the name of themeeting, participating members, etc.)

*Procedure of meeting of job manual (purpose of meeting, holdingprocedure, holding conditions, relations with other actions)

A meeting model is a model of "meeting of plural people hitherto workingseparately by gathering together suddenly", and includes, besides themeeting itself (purpose, members, date, condition), preparation for themeeting (filing procedure, invitation), and jobs after meeting (makingof proceedings, circulation, reporting of results of meeting). Themeeting is held with the roles of "approval" and "decision" of a seriesof compound actions (for example, clinical trial). In such a case, anaction before meeting and an action after meeting always exist, and thesequence of action and meeting is determined as the task of the company.

The graph in FIG. 19 shows a list of classification of meeting model,existing materials that can be used for extracting the meeting model,and the information to be collected therefrom. A specific enteringprocedure of meeting sheet is shown in the graph in FIG. 20.

The connotation of the document is shown in the graph in FIG. 21. Adocument model has following two meanings. The first is the document asinformation model of person, organization, article, action and meeting.In this case, as data items of document, person, organization, article,action, and meeting are entered as information. Therefore it can be usedalso as the reference material for making information model. The secondis the document as article. In this case, this is a process ofutilization and management of things from making of document untildisposal.

The graph in FIG. 21 shows a list of classification of document model,existing materials that can be used for extracting the document model,and the information to be collected therefrom. A specific enteringprocedure of document sheet is shown in the graph in FIG. 22. The itemname sheet showing the relation with each data item of job name sheet isalso used together. An entry example of document sheet is shown in aschematic diagram in FIG. 23.

The connotation of the event is shown in the graph in FIG. 24. The eventmodel is a set of the concept of "thing" and the concept of "incident".Further, the "thing" is defined as a visible article, and the "incident"is an invisible article. Herein, the event does not include the conceptsof the other six basic axes, and deals with all other events.

The graph in FIG. 24 shows a list of classification of event model,existing materials that can be used for extracting the event model, andthe information to be collected therefrom. A specific entering procedureof event sheet is shown in the graph in FIG. 25.

Finally, concerning the work which is a unit of job, it is necessary toregister each work name, and the entering procedure and entering rule ofwork name sheet are described. More specifically, as shown in the graphsin FIG. 26A and FIG. 26B, the entering procedure of work name sheet isas follows.

(1) The page number, job name, work name (descriptive statement of work,and section in charge are extracted from the text file of work standardby manual operation, and original data is made.

(2) Work number is given by software processing.

(3) On the condition that the work name is a simple sentence, verb isextracted by software processing.

(4) Converted into the sheet considering the entry rule by verb, bysoftware processing.

(5) Necessary items are entered in the sheet by manual operation,according to the entry rule.

The constructing method of database, that is, modeling procedure arespecifically described below while referring to the schematic diagram ofFIG. 27. The modeling procedure is roughly classified into five phasesand six steps. The starting phase is the first phase F1 for making thereal model defining the concept handled in the job. Specifically,documents described by using some descriptive system (hereinafterdocuments include both electronic information and printed information onpaper) are collected or made up. The documents to be collected include,for example, the in-house procedures, shop rules, the text of the law,and slips.

Next, the real model created in the first phase F1 is subjected todomain analysis in phase F2-1 for analyzing the seven concepts, andsentence pattern analysis in phase F2-1 for extracting the relationmainly about the action model. These two phases, that is, the domainanalysis (F2-1) and sentence pattern analysis (F2-1) complement mutuallyand are verified each other.

In the sentence pattern analysis, relating to the documents collected orcreated in the first phase F1, the verb is stratified according to thegrammatical rule of 5W1H, and the context is defined. Specifically, asshown in FIG. 18A and FIG. 18B corresponding to the connotation of theaction shown in the graph in FIG. 17, each item column of action sheetis described. Incidentally, an example of describing on a real papersheet is shown in FIG. 18A and FIG. 18B, but as shown in a schematicdiagram in FIG. 28, it may be also entered directly into the system aselectronic information, by manipulating the terminal 5 of theorganization activity management system (see FIG. 42 and FIG. 43)described later.

The registration procedure for input of operation sheet by the terminal5 is shown in a flowchart in FIG. 29. First, the screen for entering theaction sheet is displayed, and data of one case is taken out from pluraldata (sentences) to be analyzed preliminarily accumulated in the system(step S11), At the same time, the sentence of the data is cut out in thesentence element, and the coinciding sentence pattern candidate issearched from the database using the verb as the key (step S12).Afterwards, the values of the action number, sentence, verb, sentencepattern, mark showing essential element or not, and other sentenceelements are displayed on the screen of the terminal 5 as shown in FIG.28 (step S13).

Herein, the operator confirms each display item on the screen of theterminal 5, corrects when necessary (step S14), and further instructsregistration process. In response, it is checked when the specifiedvalue is present in the domain or not (step S15), and when present, thatis, when YES at step S15, it is registered in the database (step S17).When NO at step S15, whether to register in the domain or not isinquired to the operator (step S18). When the operator instructsregistration again, it is registered intact in the database (step S17),and when the operator does not instruct registration, the processreturns to step S14.

In the domain analysis, on the other hand, relating to the documentscollected or created in the first phase F1, six concepts out of theinclusive seven concepts, excluding the action, or the words arestratified and defined. More specifically, for example, relating to thedocument, each item column of the document sheet is described as shownin FIG. 23, according to the entry procedure of document sheet shown inthe graph in FIG. 22. FIG. 23 shows an example of describing on a realpaper sheet, but it is also possible to enter directly into the systemas electronic data, by manipulating the terminal 5 of the organizationactivity management system of the invention described below as shown inthe schematic diagram in FIG. 30.

Similarly, an input example of the person sheet into the terminal 5 isshown in a schematic diagram in FIG. 31, an input example oforganization sheet into the terminal 5 in a schematic diagram in FIG.32, an input example of event sheet into the terminal 5 in a schematicdiagram in FIG. 33, an input example of meeting sheet into the terminal5 in a schematic diagram in FIG. 34, and an input example of articlesheet into the terminal 5 in a schematic diagram in FIG. 35.

The registration procedure of input of each sheet by the terminal 5 forthese domain analyses is shown in a flowchart in FIG. 36. First, thescreen for input of the domain sheet is displayed, and the operatorenters the value of each item, and instructs registration (step S21).Consequently, it is checked whether the input value is present in theexisting domain or not (step S22), and when present, that is, When YESat step S22, it is registered in the database (step S24). When NO atstep S22, whether to register in the domain or not is inquired to theoperator (step S23). When the operator instructs registration again, itis registered intact in the database (step S24), and when the operatordoes not instruct registration, the process returns to step S21.

The content of each sheet thus registered can be, of course, updatedlater. FIG. 37 is a flowchart showing such procedure for updating thesheet information. First, the screen for input of domain sheet appears,and the operator specifies number or value to search the updating object(step S31). In the searched sheet, the operator updates the value, andinstructs registration again (step S32). Consequently, it is checkedwhether the newly inputted value is present in the existing domain ornot (step S33), and when present, that is, when YES at step S33, it isregistered in the database (step S35). When NO at step S33, whether toregister in the domain or not is inquired to the operator (step S34).When the operator instructs registration again, it is registered intactin the database (step S35), and when the operator does not instructregistration, the process returns to step S32.

In this way, the content of each sheet is often updated, and it is alsopossible to refer to the update history. FIG. 38 is a flowchart showingthe procedure for referring to the history of each sheet, and FIG. 39 isa schematic diagram of display screen of the terminal 5. First, thescreen for input of domain sheet is displayed, and the operatorspecifies number or value to search the reference object (step S41).When the searched sheet is displayed at the terminal 5, the history listappears at the same time as shown in FIG. 39. When the operatorspecifies any history (the date of update, or version) in the historylist (step S42), the sheet of the corresponding version is displayed asshown in FIG. 39.

For example, when it is specified that "the person making a businesstrip should present a settling statement" in the collected shop rules,the domain analysis is conducted on the "person making a business trip"as a lower concept of the person and the "settling statement" as afurther lower concept of the slip which is a lower concept of document,and the sentence pattern analysis is conducted on "present" to specifythe corresponding sentence pattern in the action sheet as the concept ofaction. In this case, the name of "the person making a business trip"can be specified as the person who presented the settling statement, andcan be fitted to the data described in the person sheet mentioned above.The same applies to the "settling statement".

The phase for integrating the concepts summarized by these two analyses(F2-1, F2-2) is the third phase F3 for making the logical model. In thethird phase F3, a logical model as shown in the schematic diagram inFIG. 40 is created. The created logical model is verified at this stage,and when contradiction is discovered, the real model is reviewed (1), orthe process goes back to the phase of domain analysis (2-1) and sentencepattern analysis (2-1). For example, as a result of sentence patternanalysis, a document "settling statement" has been entered instead of"the presenting person", "settling statement" is not registered in thelower concept of document, or "settling" statement" is not registered inthe "slip" as the lower concept of document.

It is the fourth phase F4 for creating a mounted model that is theoperation to convert the verified logical model (3) into a descriptiveform suited to a specified DBMS (database management system). Moreover,the mounted model is evaluated from the viewpoints of executionperformance and resource performance of hardware, and, when necessary,the fifth phase F5 is executed for optimizing. These phases are notcharacteristic processes of the invention, but are essential processesfor constructing the database or constructing the computer system.

Through the above process, the OODB (object-oriented database) of theinvention considering the work flow is constructed.

So far are described the constructing method of database of theinvention, more specifically, the data modeling technique of theobject-oriented database (OODB), and the analysis sheets used therein,and below is explained the organization activity management system usingthus constructed OODB. In the following embodiments, applicationexamples in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry are explained.More specifically, incorporating the events considering the workmanagement, shop rules, statutory regulations (GCP: Good ClinicalPractice) and others in research and development of pharmaceutical,various data generated in the process are registered in the OODB. Theorganization activity management system of the invention is constructedas a system capable of grasping the work situation from the physicalaspect, searching the next process, performing other so-called work flowmanagement, and searching the information of related organization,documents and persons.

FIG. 41 is a schematic diagram showing a base of object-orienteddatabase by the above data modeling technique. As mentioned above, thebasic concepts of activity resources in the organization are person,article, capital and information. When modeling these concepts, thecapital is considered to be what is produced as a result of some actionby persons. Therefore, as the framework of basic model, the targetregion is understood as the relation of persons, articles, capital,information, and action of persons.

In organization activity, meanwhile, work of person is done on theorganization, and it is modeled by stratifying in the sequence ofjuridical person, organization, section as node of organization, dynamicand organization-wide project, committee, post (position, role, etc.),and others. In other words, a man is related with the organizationthrough his role.

On the other hand, the work side model is made by employing the networkused in the project management, and stratifying roughly in the sequenceof phase, clinical trial, working group, and work.

Furthermore, by relating various documents with the work flow, it ispossible to retrieve from other standpoints than the structure of thedocument itself, such as job flow.

FIG. 42 is a schematic functional block diagram showing the generalconcept of the organization activity management system of the invention.In FIG. 42, reference numeral 10 denotes server environment, mainlycomprising database functions such as event database (DB) 11 dealingwith events, document database (DB) 12 dealing with documents, andprocess database (DB) 13 dealing with process (schedule), and existingRDB 14. The event database 11, document database 12, and processdatabase 13 are composed of the OODB constructed by the data modelingtechnique of the invention.

Reference numeral 20 represent client environments, which may be usedmainly when the operator searches the event database 11, documentdatabase 12, and process database 13. For example, when the operatorwants to see the information about the personnel, by entering a wordexpressing the concept of any stratum relating to the person out of thebasic concepts of person, organization, article, document, meeting andevent, and actions from the client environments 20 side, the serverenvironment 10 can be accessed and searched, so that a personnel viewer(personal retrieval function) 21 functions. Similarly, by entering aword expressing the concept of any stratum relating to documents fromthe client environments 20 side, a document viewer (document retrievalfunction) 22 functions, and by entering a word expressing the functionof any stratum relating to the work from the client environments 20side, a work viewer (work retrieval function) 23 functions, and thusvarious retrieval functions are provided. That is, the clientenvironments 20 are composed so that the database functions may beretrieved by using the lower concepts of the seven basic concepts ofperson, organization, article, document, meeting and event, and actionsas retrieval keys.

As the hardware, the organization activity management system of theinvention is composed like an ordinary computer system as shown in ablock diagram in FIG. 43. In FIG. 43, reference numerals 1, 2 and 3respectively represent the OODB, DBMS (database management system), andRDB (relational database) as the server environment 10, and referencenumerals 4 and 5 both represent the terminals as the client environments20. The terminal 4 is the hardware introducing the computer software forrealizing the development environments for programmer, and the terminal5, for realizing the operation environments for end user, that is, thepersonnel viewer 21, document viewer 22, work viewer 23, decision viewer24 and other viewer functions as shown in FIG. 42.

The operation of the organization activity management system of theinvention is described below by referring to a schematic diagram showingan example of screen displayed in the terminal 5.

FIG. 44 is a schematic diagram of a top menu, in which the workmanagement and document management can be retrieved, for the sake ofconvenience. On this screen, for example, when the operator selects andclicks "work management" on the screen, the work viewer 23 starts andthe condition specifying screen as shown in FIG. 45 appears.

The screen shown in FIG. 45 displays conditions stratified in thesequence of "theme name", "clinical trial name", "work group name", and"work name". The "theme name" corresponds to the phase shown in FIG. 27.The system of the invention is characterized by capability of retrievalfrom the concept or fragmentary knowledge, and when not having correctknowledge about each condition, the condition can be set by displaying alist of conditions sequentially from the higher stratum. Of course, whenthe operator has correct knowledge of each condition, it can be directlyspecified.

For example, when the operator selects and clicks the "theme name" whichis the condition of the highest position among the conditions displayedon the screen in FIG. 45, the event database 11 is accessed, and thetheme list screen is displayed as shown in FIG. 46. From this listscreen, when the operator selects and clicks any one, for example, thetheme of "AB001", the concept of the lower stratum is clinical trial,and when all clinical trials conducted in the same theme are shown inthe list of clinical trials in FIG. 47.

Consequently, among the clinical trials registered in the theme ofAB001, when the operator selects and clicks, for example, "injectionagent clinical third phase trial" (DBT), the concept of the next lowerconcept of the clinical trial is the work group, and hence all workgroups included in the clinical trial are listed up on the screen of thework group list in FIG. 48.

Among the work groups included in the clinical trial of "injection agentclinical third phase trial" (DBT), when the operator selects and clicks,for example, "clinical trial report presenting", the concept of the nextlower stratum of the work group is the work, and all works included inthe work group are displayed on the screen as work list as shown in FIG.49.

Herein, among the works included in the work group of "clinical trialreport presenting", when the operator selects and clicks, for example,"making of clinical trial plan", the operator has specified allconditions necessary for obtaining the information of the final purpose.In this state, when the operator operates as specified, "AB001","injection agent clinical third phase trial (DBT)", "clinical trialreport presenting", and "making of clinical trial report" are specifiedrespectively as the conditions of "theme name", "clinical trial name","work group name", and "work name", and hence the existence of thecorresponding information such as work progress table and educationalmaterial is displayed as shown in FIG. 50.

Herein, when the operator wants to see the entire process of theclinical trial of the theme "AB001", by clicking and selecting the "workprogress" (network diagram), the network diagram of the entire processis displayed as shown in FIG. 51, and when the operator further selectsand clicks the "double blind comparative study" among the list, therelated detailed information is displayed as shown in FIG. 52.

Or, when the operator wants to see the "standard of operation (SOP)",back to the screen in FIG. 50, by selecting and clicking the "SOPmanual", the standard of operation about the clinical trial plan isdisplayed as shown in FIG. 53.

In the example shown in FIG. 53, meanwhile, the standard of operation ofclinical trial plan report is displayed in text data, and the sampleimage data of the report is displayed as the same time. That is, thesystem of the invention is composed as the so-sailed multimedia systemcapable of displaying not only the text data but also the image data(still picture in this example) at the same time.

When the operator wants to see how much the selected work is progressedat a specific moment, by selecting and clicking the "work progresslist", the process database 13 is accessed, and the progress state ofthe work is displayed as shown in FIG. 54.

Besides, using the work viewer 23 of the client environments 20, ofcourse, it is possible to access directly, for example, the workprogress table for process management accumulated in the processdatabase 13.

When the operator wants to see the person whose name is displayed in thescreen of the work progress status shown in FIG. 54, by clicking theportion displaying the "person's name", the personnel viewer 21 accessesthe server environment 10, and the personnel information of thecorresponding personal name is read out from the event database 11 asshown in FIG. 56.

Also using the personnel viewer 21 of the client environments 20, ofcourse, it is possible to research directly the personnel related dataaccumulated in the event database 11, that is, various data of the basicconcept of men. In the event database 11, moreover, the historyinformation is also managed, and the history information can be searchedby specifying the date as shown in FIG. 56. For example, as shown inFIG. 56, by specifying Dec. 21, 1993, the version of the specified dateis displayed as shown in FIG. 57.

When deciding the slip occurring in the work selected at the specificpoint, by going back to the screen in FIG. 50 and clicking "slip", theslip deciding screen appears as shown in the schematic diagram in FIG.55. When the operator makes necessary manipulations on this screen, thedeciding is processed by EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). In theexample shown in FIG. 55, the receipt as the object of the slip to bedeciding is displayed as image data, and the slip itself is exchanged aselectronic mail.

The document retrieval is explained. In this case, the operator selectsand clicks "document management" on the top menu screen mentioned above.As a result, the document viewer 22 starts, and retrieval is enabled inany one of the three conditions, "theme", "report", and "document" type.In document retrieval, same as mentioned above, it is possible to searchfrom concept or fragmentary knowledge, and when not having correctknowledge about each condition, the condition can be set. Of course,when the operator has correct knowledge about each condition, it can bespecified directly.

In the state of display of selection screen as shown in FIG. 58, forexample, when the operator selects and clicks "document type", thedocument database 12 is accessed, and the types of documents necessaryin the process of development of new medicine are displayed. Forexample, when the operator selects and clicks "analysis report", actualdocument names registered in the document database 12 are displayed asshown in FIG. 60.

On the screen shown in FIG. 60, "document display", "pending matters","related information reference", and others are displayed. For example,when the operator wants to see "pending matters" relating to anydocument in the actual documents displayed in FIG. 60, by clicking thecorresponding area on the screen, it is displayed as shown in FIG. 61.

When the operator wants to know in which relation the report was made,by clicking the "related information reference" on the screen, theauthors, theme and others of the document are displayed as shown in FIG.62.

Furthermore, when the operator wants to known about the authors of thedocument, by clicking the author area on the screen, the event database11 is accessed the personnel information is displayed as shown in FIG.63.

As specifically described so far, the invention enables to integrate themanagement of four types of work flow necessary organization activity,that is, the management of document-oriented production work flow,document-oriented ad hoc work flow, group-oriented production work flow,and group-oriented ad hock work flow. In particular, the management ofthe group-oriented ad hock work flow almost ignored hitherto can be doneeasily.

As this invention may be embodied in several forms without departingfrom the spirit of essential characteristics thereof, the presentembodiment is therefore illustrative and not restrictive, since thescope of the invention is defined by the appended claims rather than bythe description preceding them and all changes that fall within themetes and bounds of the claims, or equivalence of such metes and boundsthereof are therefore intended to be embraced by the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A constructing method of organization activitydatabase, which managing the organization activity with use of adatabase management system operating on the hardware, comprising stepsof:for a real model in which plural concepts including concept of actionhandled in the organization activity are defined, defining each conceptby stratifying all concepts handled in the organization activity inwhich plural basic concepts composing the organization activity are madeto be highest stratum, and defining each sentence pattern by arrangingand integrating meaning of each verb deciding a concept of actionaccompanying with organization activity and each example which can betaken by said verb in that meanings, and by stratifying them; creating alogical model corresponding to said real model by fitting said definedconcept to said defined sentence pattern; and making a mounted model byconverting the created logical model into a descriptive system suited tosaid database management system.
 2. A constructing method oforganization activity database as set forth in claim 1, wherein saidbasic concepts includes at least person, organization, article,document, meeting and event.
 3. An analysis sheet used for saidorganization activity database as set forth in claim 1, having itemcolumns for describing the relation with lower concept with respect tosaid each basic concept, and item columns for describing the relationfitting each basic concept to said sentence pattern.
 4. An analysissheet as set forth in claim 3, wherein the analysis sheet is preparedcorresponding to each basic concept of at least person, organization,article, document, meeting and event.
 5. An organization activitymanagement system, which managing the organization activity with use ofa database management system operating on the hardware,comprising:server environment having:organization activity databasewhich is constructed by, for a real model in which plural conceptsincluding concept of action handled in the organization activity aredefined, defining each concept by stratifying all concepts handled inthe organization activity in which plural basic concepts composing theorganization activity are made to be highest stratum, and defining eachsentence pattern by arranging and integrating meaning of each verbdeciding a concept of action accompanying with organization activity andeach example which can be taken by said verb in that meanings, and bystratifying them; creating a logical model corresponding to said realmodel by fitting said defined concept to said defined sentence pattern;and making a mounted model by converting the created logical model intoa descriptive system suited to said database management system; adocument database accumulating information relating to documents, aprocess database accumulating information of process relating toorganization activity, and client environments having plural retrievalfunctions capable of accessing the database management system using eachone of plural basic concepts, documents and processes as retrieval keyof higher stratum, wherein said database management system manages saidorganization activity database, document database and process databaseby connecting each other, and said client environments are capable ofaccessing the information accumulated in any database in an arbitraryorder by outputting the retrieval key from each retrieval function andgiving to said database management system.
 6. An organization activitymanagement system as set forth in claim 5, wherein said basic conceptsincludes at least person, organization, article, document, meeting andevent.